ASU football rallies late but falls to the Missouri Tigers

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- No matter how impressive Arizona State looked the first two weeks, no matter how disciplined, the Sun Devils still cannot conquer the road demons that have haunted them for years.

Nearly everything that could have gone wrong Saturday night did at Memorial Stadium. ASU's special teams were horrendous. Its ball security, terrible. And yet, somehow, the Sun Devils still had two chances to defeat Missouri in the final minutes in front of 71,004 fans.

They couldn't pull it off, losing 24-20 in a way that will have fans muttering all week.

"At the end of the day we beat ourselves," ASU coach Todd Graham said. "The No.1 point today in our meeting was taking care of the football. ... Hopefully, that will wake us up."

ASU dropped to 2-1, failing to post its first non-conference road win since 2006. The Sun Devils, 5-17 on the road over the past four-plus years, start Pac-12 play next week at home against Utah. Perhaps then, the bad taste from Saturday's loss will have disappeared.

All week, Graham promised one thing: For the first time this season, ASU will face adversity. He was right in probably more ways than he imagined. The Sun Devils, who have struggled with turnovers all season (as recently as Wednesday, they committed three in practice), lost two fumbles and threw two intercepted passes.

Missouri (2-1), playing without quarterback James Franklin because of injury, had four scoring drives. Because of ASU's miscues, none stretched longer than 33 yards. A Jamal Miles fumble on a punt return led to one Missouri touchdown. An 11-yard punt -- that stemmed from a bobbled snap that wasn't great to begin with -- led to another.

With 4:08 to go in the third quarter, Missouri led 24-7. And then the Sun Devils woke up, teasing their fans with an almost incredible comeback.

To start the night, sophomore quarterback Taylor Kelly misfired on 7 of 8 attempts. It wasn't all his fault. He had little time. And at least four of the passes that were on target were dropped. But Kelly found a rhythm.

Early in the fourth, on 3rd-and-10, he scrambled right, looking for a receiver, running out of room near the sideline. At the last second, he lofted a perfect 11-yard touch pass to junior running back Marion Grice for a first down. A play later, Grice scored, cutting Missouri's margin to 24-14.

After the defense held, Kelly drove the Sun Devils 59 yards in five plays, scoring on a Grice 9-yard run. Holder Ryan Woods mishandled the point-after snap but ASU was within 24-20 with 11 minutes to play.

They got two more chances to steal a win. Both failed.

For two weeks, ASU's two-quarterback system worked beautifully. Kelly set the tone, and redshirt freshman Michael Eubank brought a different dimension in different situations. But there's a reason more programs don't go this direction, and one surfaced against Missouri with the game on the line.

After Kelly led ASU 68 yards - overcoming consecutive false-start penalties -- the Sun Devils brought in Eubank on 2nd-and-goal from the 1. This was Eubank's normal package, but Missouri keyed on the 6-foot-6, 233-pound quarterback every time he entered.

On second down, Eubank rushed for no gain. On third, he rushed for a two-yard loss. On fourth, ASU brought back Kelly, who fired incomplete in the end zone.

"To get down there like that and not score was heartbreaking, obviously," Graham said.

He defended the decision of offensive coordinator Mike Norvell to go to Eubank.

"One of the things you got to do is let people do their job,'' Graham said. "He did pretty good the first two weeks. He'll do great in his career here. I'm not going to nitpick what he does there. I will look at it and evaluate it obviously. We need to do better than what we did."

ASU, however, got one more chance. After holding Missouri, Miles returned a punt 25 yards, giving the Sun Devils possession at the 21. But with time winding down, Kelly overthrew an open Miles in the end zone. Kenronte Walker intercepted the pass, ending the game.

"It just got away from me a little bit," Kelly said.

Kelly, who completed eight in a row after his slow start, finished 14 of 23 for 178 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions. He also rushed 15 times for 59 yards and lost a fumble. Grice rushed for 24 yards and two touchdowns. He also caught two passes for 45 yards.

"Even though we had (four) turnovers, we still had a really good shot to win the game," senior right guard Andrew Sampson said. "We just couldn't do it at the end, which is frustrating."

Rewind

First quarter: Missouri set the tone early by capping the opening drive with an Andrew Baggett 49-yard field goal. The Tigers added seven more points courtesy of a 6-yard Corbin Berkstresser scoring run. But the bigger story was what ASU did: two penalties, a lost fumble and an interception by quarterback Taylor Kelly, who was 1 for 7 in the quarter. Dropped passes by ASU receivers didn't help the cause.

Second quarter: Stingy play by the Sun Devils' defense kept the game reasonably close. The Tigers did extend their lead to 17-0 on a 4-yard run by Kendi Lawrence, but the Sun Devils had a response, an 8-yard scoring pass from Kelly to D.J. Foster.

Third quarter: ASU caught a break when Missouri kicker Baggett missed a 37-yard field goal, but it didn't help itself either when Kelly fumbled and the Tigers recovered. Missouri added another touchdown on a Lawrence 1-yard run.

Fourth quarter: The Sun Devils went into this quarter trailing 24-7 and still had an opportunity to win it. They scored on touchdown runs by Marion Grice of 2 and 9 yards to close it to 24-20. A missed field goal by Baggett positioned ASU for the win, but twice the Sun Devils got inside the 20 and failed to score.

Key player: Missouri quarterback Berkstresser, who filled in for injured starter James Franklin and successfully managed the game.

Key moment: ASU was at the Tigers' 1-yard line with less than 4 minutes to play and failed to punch it in.

Key number: 9:42. Number of minutes in time of possession Missouri had over Arizona State.